Flash has been a thorn in Apple's side ever since the first iPhone shipped almost 4 years ago. While users have grown accustomed to their iOS devices not being able to display Flash content, it's unfortunate that Apple and Adobe have not been able to reach some sort of compromise before now.

Adobe, however, may have finally come up with a solution to the Flash dilemma once and for all with their latest version of Flash. At the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas, Adobe recently previewed the latest version of Flash that incorporates HTTP live streaming. With this new version of Flash, iOS devices will finally be able to display Flash video without the need to install any additional software on their devices.

Over the years Apple has been steadfast in their opposition to approving Flash for the iOS. Continually citing concerns over Flash’s poor overall performance and being detrimental to battery life. At one point Apple CEO Steve Jobs even went so far as to post an open letter on the company website defending their position regarding Flash on iOS devices entitled, Thoughts on Flash.

Adobe's latest vision, however, is designed to help content publishers stream protected video to more types of mobile devices including Apple's iPad 2. This new streaming technology is being built into Adobe's Media Server and will allow a much wider variety of devices access to Flash video content. Their solution is designed to be transparent to the end user and will not require any additional software to be downloaded as well.

According to Adobe’s company blog, “(HTTP Live Streaming) HLS is an MPEG2 transport stream (container) used by devices such as the Apple iPad 2. By adding support for HLS within the Flash Media Server, Adobe is reducing the publishing complexity for broadcasters who need to reach browsers supporting HLS through HTML5 (such as Safari) or devices where Adobe Flash is not installed.”

For the average user, the details of this plan to get Flash video to more devices is a bit technical, however, in the not too distant future, Flash required warnings will be a thing of the past. If your device doesn’t have Flash installed on it, no problem, the server will send you the video in a format that your device is capable of displaying. It’s unclear just how long it will take Adobe to implement this across the board, but at least a solution to the Flash problem is finally on its way.